Mayoral control

NEW YORK-U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is using his clout in a heated New York City battle over mayoral control of the public schools, and he's promoting the same in cities across the country.

Duncan, a supporter of mayoral control, has said if only seven mayors have control of their cities' schools at the end of his term, he will have failed. Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and Washington have already instituted it. Other cities-Detroit and Nashville-are also toying with the idea, and Duncan said he was "strongly advocating for mayoral control" when he recently visited Detroit.

In New York, Duncan urged legislators to renew mayoral control-due to its sunset on June 30-and even commented on whether or not the mayor should have the ability to fire Panel of Education Policy members, telling the online education publication GothamSchools.org that the mayor should have that power. The Citizens Union of the City of New York, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, said it reversed its position and now supports mayoral control after Duncan sent a letter asking it to reconsider.

But the New York State Assembly bill renewing mayoral control stopped short in the Senate, which is still debilitated by party power struggles. New York City's Board of Education now has control of the schools, but its members have agreed to delegate authority to Joel Klein, the school chancellor Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed in 2002.

Mayoral control puts the mayor in charge of the public schools, concentrating the power in one elected official instead of a board. Proponents say this makes reform and accountability easier. Opponents counter that it's undemocratic and runs roughshod over teachers and parents.

Joseph Viteritti, author of When Mayors Take Charge: School Governance in the City, said the clearest result of mayoral control is that it makes change faster and easier, whether the change is good or bad. Since Klein and Bloomberg took control, they have expanded charter schools from 17 in 2002 to 98 in September 2008, raised teacher salaries by 43 percent, and increased overall funding from $13 billion to $22 billion.

Bloomberg's campaign literature certainly takes credit for results, boasting that math scores are up 42 percentage points, reading scores up 28 percentage points, and graduation rates up 15 percentage points.

Leonie Haimson-a New York City parent and executive director of Class Size Matters, a nonprofit group dedicated to achieving smaller class size in New York City and the nation-scoffs at the results, saying the state standards are arbitrary. She quotes a Class Size Matters report saying the graduation rates ignore discharge rates, which rose from 2000 to 2007. "One man rule is wrong when it comes to our schools," she said, urging checks and balances, including the measure that Duncan opposed.

The U.S. Department of Education and Klein are facing lawsuits for zoning decisions and for putting a charter school in a public school building with a disregard "for rights of community voice and participation." Haimson points to this as proof that Klein and Bloomberg act unilaterally and illegally. The courts are one check against executive abuse, but Haimson said that's not enough: "It's too difficult to bring a case. It takes too long. It's too arduous for parents to find pro bono help."

Marcus Winters, senior research fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said he thinks the mayor's office has trumped up the results a little, but that the city is generally transparent about giving access to independent researchers like him. "It might not always be as glowing as you'll see in a press release," he said, "but I don't think there's agreement among most in the education community that gains in New York are real and that we need to keep an eye on them."

And it's "very misleading" for parents to argue that they don't have a voice, Winters added, "They just haven't been on the winning side on some of these issues." Some parents support the mayor's reforms, as a June Quinnipiac University poll found a wide margin of New Yorkers-56 to 32 percent-think mayoral control should continue.